I'm a career success coach, leadership trainer, author and speaker dedicated to the advancement of women. I run a career and leadership consulting and training firm -- Ellia Communications -- that offers programs, training and resources for career growth. A former corporate VP, I'm a trained therapist and career specialist, and have worked with over 10,000 professional women and emerging leaders globally. Along with Forbes, I blog for Huffington Post, LinkedIn, and my own Ellia Communications career blog. My book Breakdown, Breakthrough: The Professional Woman's Guide to Claiming a Life of Passion, Power and Purpose, explores the 12 hidden challenges working women face today and how to overcome them. If my work interests you, please visit my website at kathycaprino.com.

Brevity Just Might Save Your Career

I, like you, receive hundreds of emails a week, and participate in scores of meetings, phone interviews, teleclasses, and other types of forums each month. I’ve noticed, as the years have gone by, that if the messages I receive aren’t crisp, clear, brief and to the point, they lose me in about 10 seconds. A handful of seconds is truly all I can give to reviewing a stranger’s email or listening to a message or story pitch from someone I don’t know (who’s trying to be covered in this Forbes blog, for instance). I find I can’t waste precious time on long-winded, murky emails and communications that keep me from more pressing work that has to be accomplished that day.

For me, “less is definitely more” and I find I gravitate toward – and choose to collaborate with — people who follow that principle as well.

Turns out, I’m not alone. According to Joseph McCormack, the author of BRIEF: Make a Bigger Impact By Saying Less, “less is more” is now a critical mandate if you want to build a successful career. Joseph, an experienced marketing executive and successful entrepreneur recognized for his work in narrative messaging and corporate storytelling, founded The BRIEF Lab in 2013 after years of developing and delivering a unique curriculum on strategic narratives for U.S. Army Special Operations Command (Ft. Bragg, NC). He actively counsels military leaders and senior executives on key messaging and strategy initiatives.

Below are Joseph’s insights on the critical need – and positive impact – of crafting your communications with more brevity and focus:

“It’s time to embrace the ‘less is more’ mandate. Before you inadvertently run long at your next meeting, in an e-mail or on a call, remember that your livelihood might take a direct hit when you can’t get to the point.

There’s a growing demand for less. Professionals are consuming so much information that it’s like they’re drinking from a fire hose. Inundated with information, they get more than 304 e-mails a week, check their smartphones 150 times and consume more than 34GB of data a day.

They’ve reached over-saturation and the slow build up to the point not only adds to their woes, but also undermines careers. People get impatient, annoyed, waste valuable time and have to work overtime mentally – and they’re holding those who are long-winded accountable and punishing them with delayed decisions, harsh feedback, unresponsiveness and votes of no confidence.

The unspoken expectation is that successful professionals can manage rapidly shrinking attention spans – which have dropped to eight seconds from 12 in less than a decade – and accommodate the constant rate of interruptions that fill an already busy work day.

The demands for brevity run deep and the risks of falling short are real. So what’s the root cause of not being clear and concise? Is there something to do immediately to be better at being brief?

There are a variety of reasons why people have a hard time being succinct: overconfidence, fear, insensitivity with people’s time and carelessness. There are three hidden tendencies, however, that derail every professional’s ability to deliver a tighter message:

• Over explaining – sharing too much information and burying people with unnecessary details. The affliction of expertise can quickly turn initial interest into agony as people are dying for the speech to end and remind themselves to avoid the next encounter. It’s a career killer.

• Under preparing – omitting the upfront thinking, ordering and trimming that’s needed to make the communication as concise and contextual as possible. People mistakenly think that preparation isn’t needed because they don’t intend to talk very long. As Blaise Pascal said, “I would have written you a shorter letter if I had more time.” Brevity means prep-work.

• Missing the point completely – continuing to drive home messages far past the moment that the point has been made. As that happens, people think to themselves, “I get it now, so why did they keep talking?” When a point’s clear, it’s time to stop talking.

It’s not enough to recognize why these tendencies pull us down or why brevity is expected throughout the day. These are critical skills needed to craft a clearer point faster and more convincingly than a close competitor or counterpart looking for the same promotion:

1. Map it – draw an outline before communicating. Take out a piece paper and draw a bubble in the middle – your main idea – surrounding by a half dozen support points. That visual outline will guide what is absolutely essential. If it’s not on the map, it doesn’t need to be in the brief explanation.

2. Tell it – start telling stories and stop pushing and persuading. People love a concise narrative that explains the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when and why). Have a few standby stories that connect back to the main point you’re making.

3. Talk it – become a conversationalist who listens more and talks less. Avoid the monologue and be a better listener. Brevity is about giving someone else a chance to process, participate and respond. There’s nothing worse than a lop-sided conversation where people are waiting for their turn to speak.

4. Show it – use visuals that paint pictures better than words. If there’s any opportunity to sketch an idea, show an image or share a short video, do it. More than 70% of people are visual learners and creating that immediate appeal builds lasting clarity.

My professional experience, spanning from working with busy corporate executives and ambitious entrepreneurs to driven military leaders, continues to confirm that they all share the same common complaint: they’re praying for people around them to be brief. When that happens, they notice the difference. When it doesn’t, they make those around them – and under them – pay the price.

Understand that your advancement relies on consistently delivering concise updates, succinct summaries and daily briefings that are actually brief. It’s the relief that people all silently crave, yet rarely get – and it’s exhausting for them to process it all mentally when the presentation is disorganized, lax and long-winded.

That’s the point: being brief matters to shape and direct a successful career. Entice people with less so they want more.

In this way, brevity emerges as an essential 21st century skill that we can all learn to embrace and improve. It’s not easy, yet my dealings with professionals and soldiers who are decisive and disciplined confirm the payoff.

I have seen the extra time spent preparing ways to refine the point, order a core message, cut out dead weight and straighten out a tangled storyline consistently translate into ease of consumption. When it comes time for these well-prepared speakers to explain an important idea, new strategy or complex mission, they exude confidence and conviction and are easier to understand in less time. Their overly-verbose colleagues get lost in their own words.”

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.